CYBERSPACE — Thinking about buying a new computer from Hewlett-Packard? If so, the company hopes that you prefer to use the Internet Explorer Web browser and conduct your searches via Yahoo — cuz that’s how the company plans to set up its upcoming batch of desktop and notebook computers.An agreement between the three tech entities requires that HP configure all North American computers so that the Yahoo search engine is available in Microsoft’s upcoming Internet Explorer 7 browser.

The move is predicated on the belief that users of the popular browser will direct their search requests through the readily available Yahoo link, thus taking away some of competitor Google’s lead and regaining eyeballs for its advertisers. Likewise, with HP still playing catch-up with rival Dell, which teamed up with Google four months ago.

Neither search engine company has revealed how much money it invested in the anchored marketing agreements. Microsoft has pinned its increasing search engine aspirations on its upcoming Vista operating system for Windows, which is expected sometime in 2007.

HP machines sold in Europe will have Yahoo set as their browser default home page.